Methods for virus recovery from environmental surfaces to monitor infectious viral contamination

Environ Int. 2023 Sep 9;180:108199. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108199. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAccurate quantification of infectious contaminants on environmental surfaces, particularly infectious viruses, is essential for contact transmission risk assessment; however, difficulties in recovering viruses from surfaces using swabs complicates this quantification process. Herein, we identified the factors that significantly affected virus recovery rates and developed an ideal swab method that yielded the highest rate of virus recovery. We comprehensively analyzed the effects of swab type (cotton/polyester), swab water content (wet/dry conditions), surface material, and surface area on the rates of viral RNA and infectious virus recovery. The virus recovery rate was significantly lower than the viral RNA recovery rate (P < 0.01), indicating difficulty in the quantification of infectious viruses. The virus recovery rate was significantly higher under wet conditions than that under dry conditions (P < 0.006), and the virus recovery rate obtained using cotton swabs was significantly higher than that using polyester swabs (P < 0.0001). Furthermore, the virus recovery rate had a strong negative correlation (correlation coefficient >0.8) with the target surface area. The maximum surface area where the virus recovery rate was ≥10% (MSA-10%) was identified as the maximum quantifiable area. For influenza virus recovery, MSA-10% on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheet, PVC le...
Source: Environment International - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: research